New Learning is Hard

Well, maybe not. He gave me an overview of how he used it and told me how to get started and he suggested Google Slides for the e-book. And so I set out to work on it. I read the instructions, watched the tutorials. I spent soooo much time working on creating it to my satisfaction. I then asked friends and my husband to test it.

You may be thinking right now, really? You are supposed to be tech-savvy. I am, but new learning is always hard for me. Is it for you?

I walked away several times and then came back to it. I must admit that I cursed a few times. I obviously wanted it to look good because potentially many people would see it.

Through it all I wondered:

How often do we ask our learners (students and staff) to Create, Iterate, Tweak,Publish, for an authentic audience?

What opportunities do we give students to learn things which are challenging and yet achievable? (think Vygotsky’s theory of proximal development)

What is their motivation to see it through? How might we create opportunities for intrinsic motivation?

How often do we jump in with the answers, penalize, or criticize our learners for not readily “getting it” when they are learning something new?

How do we encourage and make time for the feedback loop so learners can make what they are working on better?

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4 thoughts on “New Learning is Hard”

Excellent! Getting Mail Chimp set up can be a beast to work through all the specifications, but you did great! I was inspired by Jeff Goins to set it up on my Wodepress sure, but now that I’m back on Blogger, I’m not quite sure how to do it again. You’ve inspired me to dig a little deeper to figure it out (if it’s even compatible!) Looking forward to reading your eBook; you always have great things to share!